Emergency Face Transplant Successfully Performed

CBS News

Doctors in Poland say they have successfully completed a total face transplant only a few weeks following the victim's accident. Typically, the procedure only occurs months or even years after the incident.

The urgent procedure was done on a 33-year-old man whose face was torn off in an accident which also crushed his jaws.

Doctors at the Oncology Center in Gliwice said the 27-hour operation was performed May 15.

A picture of the patient taken Tuesday, six days after the surgery, showed him making a thumbs-up gesture from his hospital bed.